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Column 2 Includables

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2019-05-04: Social Media Postees

Whiteness Explainer for Dummies
Johnny E. Willliams | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-05-04
Examining whiteness is of utmost importance if Americans truly wish to live in a just and peaceful society. To realize this possibility, self-identified 'whites' — and their collaborators from among the racially oppressed — must reckon with their attachment to whiteness. Whiteness was the central concern of sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois in his …dissidentvoice.org/2019/05/whiteness-exp…

Historic Anti-Nuke 'Golden Rule' Resumes Mission, Bound for Hiroshima, Nagasakiconsortiumnews.com | 2019-05-03
The refurbished peace boat set sail on May 1, with its first leg taking it to Hawaii, reports Colonel Ann Wright. 'Wave Maker' Found Derelict in 2011 By Ann Wright Special to Consortium News A refurbished peace boat that left… Read more ?…consortiumnews.com/2019/05/03/historic-a…

Jordan on Edge Ahead of Unveiling of Trump's "Peace Plan" for Palestine
Osama Al Sharif | globalresearch.ca | 2019-05-03
President Donald Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Jason Greenblatt, tweeted last week that | "rumours that our peace vision includes a confederation between Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, or that the vision contemplates making Jordan the | …globalresearch.ca/jordan-trumps-peace-pl…

Jewish and Arab Israelis stand together for peace
People's World | peoplesworld.org | 2019-05-03
Alon-Lee Green, is co-founder and national director of Standing Together, a grassroots movement uniting Jewish and Arab citizens in Israel. Standing Together is "guided by the principles of peace, equality, and social justice" and recognizes "the interconnections of the ongoing occupation of Palestinian territories, the growing social and economic disparities within Israeli society, and the …peoplesworld.org/article/jewish-and-arab…

The Ends of Arms Control
John Feffer | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
My first trip to Washington, DC to do something other than protest on the streets was to interview for a Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellowship, which brings young people to the nation's capital to work on arms control and disarmament. It was 1987, around the time that Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range…counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/the-ends-of-…

Mass. Judge Refuses to Halt Pro-Palestinian Event at UMass Featuring Roger Waters & Linda Sarsour
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2019-05-03
"Not Backing Down: Israel, Free Speech, and the Battle for Palestinian Human Rights." That's the title of an event set to take place Saturday at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. After three anonymous UMass students filed a lawsuit to stop the event, a judge ruled Thursday the event can proceed, saying, "There's nothing that comes even close to a threat of harm or incitement to violence or lawlessness." We get an update from Sut Jhally, event organizer and professor of communication at the University of Massachusetts, and Rachel Weber, attorney and member Jewish Voice for Peace, Western Massachusetts chapt…www.democracynow.org/2019/5/3/mass_judge…

Engaging world's youth vital to preventing violent extremism, building sustainable peace, UN official tells Baku Forum
United Nations | un.org | 2019-05-03
The spotlight for the second and final day of the 5th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue in Baku, Azerbaijan, shined brightly on youth, with a lively discussion on the vital role young people play in countering and preventing violent extremism.news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2019/05/1…

Friday's Daily Brief: hunger in North Korea, human rights in Iran, updates on DR Congo and Benin
United Nations | un.org | 2019-05-03
This Friday, we cover: a worrying food crisis in the Democratic Republic of North Korea; attacks against civilians in DR Congo; outrage after the execution of child offenders in Iran; concerns over a super cereal distributed by the World Food Programme; and post-electoral violence in Benin.news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2019/05/1…

Biden Supporters Launch $60 Million Dark Money Group
Staff | truthout.org | 2019-05-03
A new "dark money" group is labeling itself the strategy center for Democrats in 2020. | The recently-launched Future Majority will spend up to $60 million to target voters in swing states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio in the 2020 election, helping Democrats craft messaging that they are fighting for working people while countering conservative talking points, according to Politico. | The 501(c)(4) nonprofit, run by Democratic strategist Mark Riddle, is not required to disclose its donors. The g…truthout.org/articles/biden-supporters-l…

Venezuela: Another Failed Coup Attempt
Peter Koenig | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-05-03
In the early morning hours of 30 April, 2019, the self-declared "Interim President", Juan Guaidó, launched what at first sight appeared to be a military coup — Guaidó calls it "Operation Freedom" (sounds very much like a Washington-invented title) — against the democratically elected, legitimate government of Nicolas Maduro. With two dozen of defected armed …dissidentvoice.org/2019/05/venezuela-ano…

Proposed new census question steps up Trump administration's racist attacks on immigrants
Satya Vatti | liberationnews.org | 2019-05-03
Given the track record of the U.S. government, with its racist history of deportations, incarceration and family separations under both the Democratic and Republican parties, the citizenship question on the census is sure to incite anxieties and fear among immigrants who are repeatedly scapegoated by politicians for mass unemployment and poverty that are in fact products of the capitalist economic system.liberationnews.org/proposed-new-census-q…

I'm Somali, a US Resident and Muslim, and Ilhan Omar Represents Me
Staff | truthout.org | 2019-05-03
I first heard about Ilhan Omar five years ago. It was 2014, and the political landscape in Minneapolis was contentious among Democrats with threats and behind-the-scenes political attacks fueling party infighting. As a young activist and aid to a local city councilmember, Omar showed up to a Democratic-Farmer-Labor caucus at the Brian Coyle Community Center in Minneapolis to support the election of Mohamud Noor, a candidate who would upend the Democratic establishment and so-called Minnesota progressive culture. Noor hoped to unseat a 42-year incumbent, so tensions at the meeting were high. Bickering between t…truthout.org/articles/im-somali-a-us-res…

FROM THE FIELD: Faces and Voices of Conflict
United Nations | un.org | 2019-05-03
"The militia forbade me to cry otherwise they would behead me" – the sombre words of a ten-year-old girl caught up in the years' long conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), one story which features in a new UN photo exhibition in the United States, called Caught in Conflict.news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2019/05/1…

Environmental Crisis, Oil Geopolitics and the Trump Diversion
Rob Urie | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
America in 2019 is a very strange place. The problems of the age: looming environmental calamity, the threat of nuclear annihilation and accumulating class tensions, keep being shoved to the side through diversionary tactics. No sooner had a range of left programs been consolidated under the banner of a Green New Deal than establishment Democrats…counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/environmenta…

Elections in Spain: Regime Maintenance Disguised as Democratic Vitality and the Possibility of Change
Thomas S. Harrington | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
In last Sunday's Spanish elections, Pedro Sánchez's Socialist Party (PSOE) considerably expanded its presence in the country's Parliament, while the Popular Party (PP), which for more than two decades has quite purposefully and successfully driven the country's arena of "thinkable thought" toward the hard right, had its poorest electoral showing in years. The other big…counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/elections-in…

Trump vs. Congress and Our Constitution
Ralph Nader | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
Donald Trump is the most impeachable president in American history. Many Democrats, however, are running away from the word "impeachment" for tactical political reasons. Some Democrats say they have a sworn duty under the Constitution to present articles of impeachment for a vote in the House of Representatives, regardless of the refusal by the Republican…counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/trump-vs-con…

Roaming Charges: Biden in Plain Sight
Jeffrey St. Clair | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
Joe Biden will never again be more popular than he was the day before he entered the presidential race. Still his residual appeal, a misbegotten nostalgia for the Obama years, vaulted Biden 20 points ahead of his nearest Democratic Party rivals in a Quinnipiac poll taken a few days after Biden's announcement (in a creepy video) and his first campaign gigs, where, despite decades of service in the legislative ranks of Wall Street, he cunningly wrapped himself in the union label.counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/roaming-char…

The Secret Campaign for 2020: Where the Democratic Candidates Stand on Foreign Policy
Ted Rall | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
Americans vote their pocketbooks. It's the economy, stupid. Absent a war or recent terrorist attack, conventional wisdom believes that voters prioritize domestic issues. Right now, conventional wisdom is correct. According to the latest Pew Research poll, the five most important issues for Democrats are healthcare, education, Medicare, poverty and the environment. So it's not surprising that the major Democratic…counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/the-secret-c…

Pelosi's Trump Problem and Ours
Andrew Levine | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
Part One Since long before Donald Trump oozed out from the New York tabloids and Atlantic City casinos into the mainstream of American politics, the United States has had no genuine center left political party. What it has had instead is a feckless Democratic Party that is as much a capitalist tool (apologies to Forbes…counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/pelosis-trum…

Kanaky: Independence forces set their sights on 2020 referendum
susan_p | greenleft.org.au | 2019-05-03
The struggle for self determination in New Caledonia (Kanaky) was boosted last November, when more than 43% of the population voted to support independence from France in a referendum. A second independence referendum will be held next year. | The FLNKS (The Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front), a pro-independence alliance of political parties met in March to plan for the general elections in May and to prepare for the 2020 referendum. Green Left Weekly's Susan Price spoke with FLNKS representative in Australia, Charles Wea about the congress and the referendum campaign. | *** | What is the signific…greenleft.org.au/content/kanaky-independence-forces-set-their-sights-2020-referendum

Senate Fails to Override Trump's Veto on Yemen War Resolution
Jason Ditz | theantimedia.com | 2019-05-03
(ANTIWAR.COM) — Calls to reassert Congressional authority over US war-making failed to muster enough votes to override President Trump's veto of the Yemen War Powers resolution, which demanded Trump withdraw US involvement from the unauthorized war. The vote was 53-45, short of the two-thirds majority needed to override. Opposition to the war was driven by the war crimes …

'We saw this playbook in Iraq': Ilhan Omar shoots back at VP Pence in socialism spatrt.com | 2019-05-03
Freshman Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has fired back at Vice President Mike Pence, after Pence accused her of "choosing socialism over freedom" by opposing regime change in Venezuela. | …rt.com/usa/458316-ilhan-omar-venezuela-p…

Spain's General Election 2019. Pedro Sanchez is the Winner
Iván Orosa Paleo | globalresearch.ca | 2019-05-03
On April 28, a general election, for the National Congress and the Senate, was held in Spain after Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called new elections. Sánchez is the leader of the social-liberal, pro-European Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSO), in …globalresearch.ca/spains-general-electio…

Climate Change legislation passes the US House
Adam Lee | naacp.org | 2019-05-03
H.R. 9, which was authored by Congresswoman Kathy Castor (FL), who is also the Chairwoman of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, would prohibit the U.S. from withdrawing from the accord and also would require the administration to develop a plan for the U.S. to meet its voluntary commitments under the Paris Agreement. …naacp.org/latest/climate-change-legislat…

Pointing to Disastrous History, Sanders Warns Against Military Action in Venezuela
Jake Johnson | theantimedia.com | 2019-05-03
(CD) — Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday condemned the Trump administration's threats to take military action in support of right-wing coup plotters in Venezuela. The Vermont senator joined the chorus of progressive members of Congress and advocacy groups warning that U.S. intervention would only worsen political turmoil in Venezuela–and could potentially spark an all-out civil war. "The Trump administration …

Spanish elections: Important battle won against the right
susan_p | greenleft.org.au | 2019-05-03
The question on everyone's lips in the last week of the Spanish election campaign was just how strongly the filthy brown tide of reaction would run — encapsulated in the vote for the racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic, anti-feminist, pro-gun and, above all, anti-Catalan outfit Vox. | The average of legal polling, allowed by the Central Electoral Board until one week before the vote, had Vox at 11.2%, yielding around 30-35 seats in the 350-seat Congress of Deputies. | However, illegal and internal party polls in the last week of the campaign — or deliberately scary leaks about them — were assigning…greenleft.org.au/content/spanish-elections-important-battle-won-against-right

Ocasio-Cortez says 'sloppy, mediocre' GOP witnesses are embarrassment to Congressrt.com | 2019-05-03
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has divided Twitter after dunking on the credentials and quality of witnesses called by GOP lawmakers to testify before Congress, describing their presence as a source of embarrassment. | …rt.com/usa/458311-aoc-mediocrity-gop-wit…

Making (and Raising) Babies in the USA
Ron Jacobs | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
In recent months, statements by two very different politicians regarding the act of bearing and raising children have caused a fair amount of controversy. The first comment was from Congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who remarked that many people in her generation were hesitant to bring children into a world facing possible climate catastrophe. Her comment was…counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/making-and-r…

Green Party gains more seats than ever before in local elections
Fréa Lockley | thecanary.co | 2019-05-03
The Green Party secured a historic local election victory on 2 May. Just days after parliament declared a "climate emergency", Greens won more seats in UK elections than ever before. | "The biggest election night in our history": | With votes still coming in at the time of writing, the so-called #greenwave is clear to…
thecanary.co/trending/2019/05/03/green-party-gains-more-seats-than-ever-before-in-local-elections/

Orwellian Cloud Hovers Over Russia-gateconsortiumnews.com | 2019-05-03
Ray McGovern calls out the void of evidence at the heart of the Senate hearing with Attorney General Barr on Wednesday. By Ray McGovern Special to Consortium News George Orwell would have been in stitches Wednesday watching Attorney General William… Read more ?…consortiumnews.com/2019/05/03/orwellian-…

Barr Launches Wide-Ranging Probe Into 2016 FBI Spying on Trump
Tyler Durden | theantimedia.com | 2019-05-03
(ZH) — Attorney General William Barr told the Senate Judiciary Panel this week that he has assembled a team at the Justice Department to probe whether the spying conducted by the FBI against the Trump campaign in 2016 was improper, reports Bloomberg. Barr suggested that he would focus on former senior leaders at the FBI and Justice …

'We teach, we vote!:' 10,000 teachers rise up against Republican legislature in deep red South Carolina
Julia Conley | nationofchange.org | 2019-05-03
Led by the grassroots group SC for Ed, teachers from across the traditionally deep red state took personal days to stage the walkout.nationofchange.org/2019/05/03/we-teach-w…

Joe Biden's troubling record
Derek Royden | nationofchange.org | 2019-05-03
On the basis of this record, the former VP hardly seems like the best person to heal the divisions so fiercely stoked by Donald Trump, the Republican Party and well funded right-wing media over the last few years.nationofchange.org/2019/05/03/joe-bidens…

Wisconsin's May Day celebration demands drivers licenses for undocumented
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2019-05-03
Madison WI – Thousands gathered on, May 1 in celebration of May Day in Wisconsin's capital. Voces de la Frontera hosted the event and were able to bring in more than 17 different cities to attend. | The march and rally were not only in celebration of May Day, but also to put pressure on Wisconsin Republicans to pass legislation that would allow undocumented people to reinstate their driving licenses. | Hector Hernandez said, "We drove almost three hours this morning to demand drivers licenses. We cannot continue to be harassed by police when all we are trying to do is take our children to school." Currently, Gov…www.fightbacknews.org/2019/5/3/wisconsin…

What Past Civil Wars Tell Us About the Future of Syria
Robert Fisk | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
When Syrian government soldiers first recaptured the small village of Deir Hafar from Isis in 2017, they found the black-painted but hurriedly abandoned Islamic "court" strewn with piles of documents. These hundreds of pages contained terrible proof of how the Syrian civilians there had behaved under at least three years of Isis occupation. I arrived in…counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/what-past-ci…

A free press is 'cornerstone' for accountability and 'speaking truth to power': Guterres
United Nations | un.org | 2019-05-02
At a time when disinformation and mistrust of the news media is growing, a free press is "essential for peace, justice, sustainable development and human rights", said the UN Secretary-General, in his message for World Press Freedom Day, marked on Friday.news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2019/05/1…

Failing to Override Trump on Yemen, Congress Must Keep Pushing
Paul Kawika Martin | peaceaction.org | 2019-05-02
Washington, D.C. — May 2, 2019 — In response to the Senate failing to secure the two-thirds majority vote necessary to override President Trump's veto of S.J.Res. 7, legislation directing the president to withdraw U.S. support for the war in Yemen, Paul Kawika Martin, Senior Director for Policy and Political Affairs at Peace Action, released …peaceaction.org/2019/05/02/failing-to-ov…

Inclusion, equality a must for 'long-lasting peace and sustainable development', UN official tells high-level event in Baku
United Nations | un.org | 2019-05-02
Exclusion and deep inequality will forever thwart "long-lasting peace and sustainable development", a high-level official from the United Nations cultural agency said on Thursday at the 5th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue.news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2019/05/1…

Pro-coup protesters surround Venezuelan embassy in Washington but meet resistance from peace activists
Peter Bolton | thecanary.co | 2019-05-02
As the coup attempts in Venezuela rage on, a battle over the country's embassy in Washington has been raging too. As The Canary previously reported, a group of activists called the 'Embassy Protection Collective' have been living in the embassy as guests. Their aim is to keep it out of the hands of opposition leader Juan Guaidó's self-proclaimed shadow govern…
thecanary.co/trending/2019/05/03/pro-coup-protesters-surround-venezuelan-embassy-in-washington-but-meet-resistance-from-peace-activists/

First-Hand Account of Protecting the Venezuelan Embassy in Washingtonconsortiumnews.com | 2019-05-02
Kevin Zeese, co-founder of the Venezuelan Embassy Protection Collective, described the situation inside the embassy on Wednesday. 'Focused on Sovereignty and Peace' By Dennis J. Bernstein Special to Consortium News On May 1, I conducted this phone interview with Kevin… Read more ?…consortiumnews.com/2019/05/02/first-hand…

The Spanish elections and the alleged gains of the "extreme right"
unitedEditor | uwidata.com | 2019-05-02
The elections in Spain have shown that the country will not follow the populist trends that seem to be blooming across the rest of Europe. The PSOE, the Spanish Socialist Party, a hollow social democratic version of the radical party it once was, retained their hold on power. #SpainElection | #EleccionesGenerales28Abril | Polls have opened …uwidata.com/3268-the-spanish-elections-a…

Black Women Rally in Defense of Rep. Ilhan Omar
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-05-02
Hundreds of Black women and men gathered at the US Capitol to serve notice to the Republicans who are attacking her, and to the Democrats who are not defending her, that they all #StandWithIlhan…therealnews.com/stories/black-women-rall…

FRSO delegation at mega May Day rally in Venezuela
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2019-05-02
Caracas, Venezuela — The Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) delegation in Venezuela participated in the massive International Workers Day rally in Caracas, May 1. Hundreds of thousands of working people participated. President Maduro addressed the rally. | The massive outpouring of support for Venezuela's national democratic government came on the heels of a failed coup attempt.www.fightbacknews.org/2019/5/1/frso-dele…